Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

China: Chemicals producer Evonik Industries has started operations at a new 230,000t/yr capacity hydrogen peroxide plant in July 2014 in Jilin City, Jilin Province. Evonik invested more than US$139m in the site to raise its global capacity for hydrogen peroxide production to more than 900,000t/yr.

"This investment further consolidates our market leadership for hydrogen peroxide," said Klaus Engel, executive board chairman of Evonik Industries. Evonik will supply hydrogen peroxide from Jilin direct to the neighbouring propylene oxide plant run by Jishen Chemical Industry Co Ltd. Jishen will use the hydrogen peroxide to manufacture propylene oxide on the basis of the HPPO process. Propylene oxide is mainly used to make polyurethane intermediates that are used in manufacturing insulation materials for the construction and refrigeration industry.

"We are registering a great deal of demand around the world for our efficient HPPO process," said Gregor Hetzke, head of the advanced intermediates business unit at Evonik. "The Jilin plant represents another milestone on the way to establishing hydrogen peroxide as an eco-friendly oxidant for the process of chemical synthesis. The project is also proof of how we use new technologies to systematically drive forward our growth."

Evonik developed the HPPO process together with ThyssenKrupp Uhde. The new plant in Jilin is the second of its kind. The HPPO process allows the eco-friendly oxidant to also be used in the direct chemical synthesis of propylene oxide. The benefits of the new method are that it requires much lower investment costs, has high production efficiency and has excellent environmental compatibility.

Another large Evonik plant, a US$136m integrated production complex for isophorone and isophorone diamine, started trial operations in Shanghai in May 2014 and will be officially inaugurated in July 2014. The complex will have a capacity of 50,000t/yr.

"The new plant continues our successful growth story in isophorone chemistry," said Patrik Wohlhauser, executive board member and chief operating officer of Evonik Industries. "We are now represented in the three major economic zones, Europe, North America and Asia."